North Dakota farmer discovers largest oil spill on U.S. soil in the middle of his wheat field

Steve Jensen discovered an oil spill on his land in a remote area of North Dakota, due to a busted Tesoro Corp. pipeline running under his farm. (Kevin Cederstrom/AP)

A North Dakota farmer is swimming in more than 20,000 barrels of "liquid gold" after discovering oil rupturing from his wheat field.

Unfortunately for Steve Jensen, it's neither his to keep and has become the largest oil spill on U.S. soil in history — all while completely destroying his land.

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"It was just like Jed Clampett shooting at some food," he described the first spout first spotted on Sept. 29 to the Associated Press, "except we weren't hunting, we were harvesting."

Jensen, 56, says he knew right away what the actual source was, with an oil pipeline running directly under his 1,800-acre farm from the Bakken shale play to the Stampede rail facility near Columbus, N.D.

He immediately reported the bubbling 4- to 6-inch spout to local authorities while describing the initial spill being "as big as a deck," to Reuters.

This "deck," however, steadily grew to a size of more than 7.4 acres of his land — the size of seven football fields.

Tesoro Corp. estimates more than 20,000 barrels have spilled. Because the land is lined with clay the 'liquid gold' hasn't contaminated the groundwater, a state environmental geologist says. (Kevin Cederstrom/AP)

"I'm not going to be able to farm that land for a few years," he told Fox News. "There'll be compensation for sure."

Tesoro Logistics, which owns the pipeline, said that the spill amounts to $4 million in damages, which Jensen expects will take two to three years to clean up.

Now that the company has the pipeline turned off it says they're working to both repair and replace a 200-foot section of it.

"A portion of the pipeline was removed and has been sent to an independent lab for analysis," Tesoro spokeswoman Tina Barbee told the Daily News in an email. "Tesoro will not speculate on the cause of the leak as it is currently under investigation."

As of Wednesday Barbee reports more than 2,600 barrells recovered from the spill site.

A clean-up crew works at the site of an oil pipeline leak on the farm of Steve Jensen. So far, the spill in Tioga, N.D., has spread to the size of seven football fields. (Kevin Cederstrom/AP)

Controversy over officials' delayed reporting of the incident has already raised eyebrows, however.

State officials took 12 days to inform the public about the massive spill.

It's four-times larger than the last major rupture in Arkansas that forced the evacuation of 20 homes last March, leaving many to wonder why it was hidden.

"It shows an attitude of our current state government and what they think of the public," Don Morrison, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council told the AP. "It's definitely worrisome. There is a pattern in current state government to not involve the public."

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said that he wasn't informed about the spill until Wednesday night — 10 days after the rupture was reported.

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People are questioning why it took officials took nearly two weeks to inform the public about the break in an oil pipeline. (Kevin Cederstrom/AP)

"Initially, it was felt that the spill was not overly large," said Dalrymple in an unrelated news conference held last Thursday. "When they realized it was a fairly sizable spill, they began to contact more people about it."

Despite the exorbitant amount of damage, State environmental geologist Kris Roberts described the situation as "very lucky."

Because the land area is naturally lined with clay, more than 40 feet thick, the oil doesn't risk spreading to underground water sources she said.